Antonio Conte, Inter Milan and the quest for a fightback into relevance

The Nerazzurri have for long looked for someone to pick them up from mediocrity. They finally seem to have found the man for it.

Inter Milan have endured a dreaded period for close to a decade now with their sheer relevance in European football being put under scanner due to their recent performances. After the historic treble victory under the tutelage of Jose Mourinho, they have failed to get the wheels running and have stumbled upon a muddle that has been extremely difficult to tackle.

Nevertheless, as every complication finds a solution to itself, the blue half has finally come to a man whom they can bank upon to stage the revival of the club.

Antonio Conte is a renowned figure in the Italian football circuit. Well, he has attained prominence everywhere he has worked but the respect that he commands in his home country is commendable. There are specific reasons for the same. Once an integrally crucial player for Juventus, he returned back to them in 2011 and propelled the Old Lady to an era of unparalleled success.

Juventus were under the shadows after the whole Calciopoli scandal and were looking for someone to reinstate their legacy and form a pathway for anyone who takes over the reins in the future. Conte, an exceptionally vocal, straightforward and tactically astute man, was the one whom they looked on to for this strenuous task.

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Call it the charm of the man or his utter excellence in his field of work, the 50-year-old won the Serie A thrice with his old club. He put them into a pedestal where Juventus were again looked up to in Italian football. It was a direly tenacious aim, to bring back the glory days at the Allianz (then known as the Juventus Stadium).

However, with a brand of work that only Conte can associate and claim to have mastered in, he was successful in recovering the club from the shambles that they were stuck in.

How the tables turn, don’t they?

Antonio Conte has returned to Italy; to recover the fading yet another once-major club. Now, he has peg down the ones whom he ignited to a prolonged period of imperious success in the first place.

For starters, the beginning has been pretty good from his perspective. Conte has a powerful presence wherever he works. He has an air around himself, with plenty of attention and glares surrounding his personality. He is an authoritarian figure, unafraid to speak up when something goes against his wishes.

Such managers require a squad over whom they can maintain a stronghold over. In the modern-day, with player-power becoming the new fad and consistently getting one over the gaffers, it was necessary that Inter addressed the elephant in the room.

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Hence, gradually, Mauro Icardi was slid out. The Argentine has been an exceptional player for the club over the years. However, the antics surrounding his contract extension and transfer negotiations do not gauge well with a club trying to still find a way out of their own struggles.

Moreover, at such delicate times, Conte would desire even further command over his squad and Icardi’s character and gimmicks could have eroded the manager’s relationship with a fraction of the squad. That’s how players instill their powers over the managers these days, don’t they?

Firstly, one of them falls out with the boss. This result in an indifferent treatment from the manager towards that particular person and accordingly a section of the squad close to that footballer develop issues with the man in-charge as well. It is difficult to terminate contracts of players and hence the manager becomes the scapegoat eventually.

Inter acted smart and avoided a clash of personalities that unarguably would have ended up with troubles at some point in time.

To make things better, they replaced Icardi with a favorite of Conte, Romelu Lukaku. The Italian had preferred the Belgian over Alvaro Morata during his time at Chelsea as well and has been a long-time admirer of the centre-forward. Lukaku found himself out of the plans of Ole Gunnar Solksjaer at Manchester United and chose to move to a coach who will build his tactics around the 26-year-old striker.

Moving ahead, they also roped in Nicolo Barella and Stefano Sensi. Both of them are adequately well-trained to deal with the rigours of Italian football and hence the phase where a midfielder takes time to adapt to a new league is not a problematic matter here.

They also add an incredible amount of qualitative squad depth in the midfield, an area of the football field through which streamlines a lot of importance in the Conte’s philosophy and brand of playing the game.

The vital transfers: Diego Godin and Alexis Sanchez

Diego Godin is an excellent choice as the centre-back, with the Uruguayan earning massive laurels and applause during his time at Ateltico Madrid. His experience and level-headedness at the back would ensure and instill a sense of calmness with composure to the backline. Godin will most probably be expected to lead the defensive line from the centre of the trident.

However, possibly the most looked forward to transfer has been, how Inter secured the loan move of Alexis Sanchez. The Chilean went through a horrid time during his time at United. There have been conjectures regarding how he has seemed to have lost all of his bullish qualities as a forward. Maybe a change of leagues could help him rediscover the touch that enabled him in the topmost bracket of the best footballers in the world until only a couple of years ago.

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With the wing-backs being a prominent feature in Conte’s style of forming the team, Lukaku’s prowess with headers could help the Belgian notch a considerable number of goals for his new team. Credible service, crosses from the flanks was something that he craved for at United but somehow ended up being starved of it.

Sanchez could also be a lethal force to reckon with if Conte manages to extract the best out of him. The work-ethic wouldn’t be a cause of concern. It has never been. But, just that case of having to recoup one’s talents as a footballer. Valentino Lazaro, a wing-back from Hertha Berlin previously was also brought into the squad by Conte. Clearly, he understands the services that his forwards would require to attain the success that they are capable of.

Most importantly though, it is laudable how the Nerazzurri have finally landed up a man who has had a noteworthy experience of leading a particular club out of the doom to a spell of sustained triumph. Conte is someone who can take over a project and intricately put all his work into ameliorating it.

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He has got his transfers right, but that is just the start. The initial league results have been very promising as well. They have secured six victories from six matches in the Serie A, sitting comfortably atop the points table and with the new signings tuning in well with the demands of the coach and the team as well.

In the Champions League though, they have bagged only a single point after two encounters. However, it could be somewhat assumed that after having commenced on a completely new project with fresh reinforcements and developing a new style and brand of football within the team, immediate success in European football might not necessarily be the topmost priority in Conte's checklist.

As the long league season will unfold upon us gradually, one would wish to see to what level does Antonio Conte manages to upstage Juventus in Serie A eventually.

Well, how the tables turn, don’t they?